Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus and a method and a computer readable medium.
Description of the Related Art
Due to growing awareness of energy saving, recent communication apparatuses, such as an image processing apparatus, are provided with an energy saving function. A known example of the energy saving function is an automatic power-off function. The automatic power-off function is the function of automatically shifting the state of a communication apparatus in the power-on state to the power-off state (a state in which power is less consumed than in the power-on state) when the communication apparatus is not accessed for a predetermined time or longer. There is a known automatic power-on function for enhancing the convenience of the automatic power-off function. The automatic power-on function is the function of automatically shifting the state of a communication apparatus in the power-off state to the power-on state when the communication apparatus is accessed.
Furthermore, there is a known function of displaying a screen for using the communication apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “remote use screen”) on the display of an external device, such as a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as “PC”) (hereinafter referred to as “remote use function). This function is implemented by a PC requesting data for the display of a remote use screen (corresponding to an access), from a communication apparatus, and by the communication apparatus responding to the request.
The user can perform various operations on the communication apparatus remotely, for example, changing various settings of the communication apparatus and cleaning, by inputting desired instructions to the remote use screen displayed on the PC. Furthermore, the user can check the state of the communication apparatus remotely by displaying a screen showing the state of the communication apparatus on the remote use screen.
In a situation in which the remote use screen is used by the user, the communication apparatus needs to be in the power-on state so that the communication apparatus can respond to a request for data for the display of the remote use screen, issued from the PC. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-268399 discloses a communication apparatus which, when accessed from an external device, delays execution of the process of shifting from the power-on state to the power-off state. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-3474 discloses a communication apparatus which, when accessed, automatically shifts from the power-off state to the power-on state.
However, if the access to the communication apparatus from the PC is a predetermined access, the communication apparatus may be kept in the power-off state.
For example, a request for data for displaying a remote use screen that is automatically updated and a request for data from a PC on which the remote use screen that is automatically updated is displayed may be issued not through user operation but automatically by the PC. Therefore, a situation in which the request is issued to the communication apparatus can be a situation in which the communication apparatus does not need to respond to the request, such as when the request is automatically repeated by the PC although the user leaves the PC unused. Under such a situation, the communication apparatus may be in the power-off state.
The communication apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-268399 does not take into account the details of the access with regard to the control for delaying execution of the process of shifting from the power-on state to the power-off state. For this reason, the communication apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-268399 has a problem in that the power-on state is kept even if the communication apparatus may be shifted to the power-off state.
The communication apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-3474 does not take into account the details of the access with regard to the process of shifting from the power-off state to the power-on state. For this reason, the communication apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-3474 has a problem in that the communication apparatus shifts to the power-on state even if the power-off state may be kept.